For a Writer
by kathyangs
Summary: John, like many other Brits, is a Whovian. When Sherlock is thrown into the mix, he learns about the writer behind the story on the screen. Written for a friend who was admitted to hospital with the condition described in the story, which I hadn't heard about before. She was writing several fanfictions for Doctor Who at the time, and kept updating even as she was recovering.


Fanfiction

"...and the TARDIS, whining, lights flashing, disappeared from the moonlit alley." John read to himself.

"She won't be updating from a hospital bed." Sherlock announced with a tilt of his head.

"What?"

"She, the author, TARDISsuper221. She's in a hospital."

"How do you know that?" John said, looking up from the screen.

"As I've told you before, John, I don't 'know', I deduce." Sherlock replied, not looking away from his microscope.

"Okay, how did you deduce that?" John shot back.

"Given the large amount of time you've been glued to your computer recently, you must have found something to occupy yourself. Your blog? No, you've barely been typing, and when you do, it's only a few keystrokes. That eliminates any social networking websites as well. It _is _possible to spend hours on Facebook simply liking things, but you've barely clicked anything either. You have, however, been scrolling a lot. You could have been reading an email, but you just read something about the show Doctor Who, unlikely that this is a message from someone. The only possible conclusion, given your hobbies and interests, is that you have recently discovered fanfiction for your favorite show."

"And how do you know that TARDISsuper221 is a girl in the hospital?"

"You've been returning to the same story for months, it is always the first page that comes up when you start to type ' ' in the address bar. It's obvious that this particular author has been updating a lot, as periodically, at the end of each chapter, you write a passionate and long review. Just now, however, you clicked to go the next chapter, without reviewing. That means you've already read this chapter before, yet you never bother to read the previous before reading a newly posted chapter. You are too much of a dedicated reader to have missed a single chapter of this story. You'd have read any chapter the day it came out. It could be that she's just put two chapters up at the same time, but that's unlikely. Fanfiction authors rarely upload more than one chapter to a story each day, and knowing the length and quality of TARDISsuper221's chapters, I highly doubt she has the time. That means that you were reading a previous chapter, probably because she hasn't updated recently and you were looking forward to reading a new chapter today. She, as indicated by the excessive use of pronouns, is most likely a female writer, but I could be mistaken, I've only skimmed a chapter. TARDISsuper221 must have suddenly been placed in a position where she cannot write fanfiction. So she cannot type, but she's not on vacation, she'd have said that in her author notes, which are filled with personal information. This also indicates that she is most likely still alive, as her author's notes are always lively, and she mentions exams, so she's still in school. She could have had a heart attack, but given that she's school-aged, it is highly unlikely that it was fatal. If it was, my condolences. "Sherlock rattled off.

"That was...incredible. I'm going to message her that I hope she gets better." John glanced down at his screen before looking back up at Sherlock, who raised a single, judging eyebrow from his microscope eyepiece.

"On second thought, I'll just ask her how she's doing and say that I can't wait for the next chapter." John sighed.

"She replied back." John commented over breakfast-on-the-couch-because-the-table-has-acid- on-it.

Sherlock didn't reply, only twisted the fine adjustment on his microscope, bringing the slide into perfect focus.  
"She says she threw up and collapsed during a sports game, and that she is in the hospital until the doctors can figure out what it is. Then she says she is 'dottu'?" John puzzled over the last line of her message.

"It might be acute angle-closure glaucoma. Tell her to ask her doctors to run the tests for it, even if it's not standard procedure. " Sherlock clasped his hands together under his chin.

"Angle-closure glaucoma? That's when the aqueous humor inside the eye can't drain because the iris is pulled at an angle. It's highly uncommon in Europe. Why would she have that?" John asked.

"She said she is 'dottu'. Assuming that's not her name-which I highly doubt given that she is fluent in English-'dottu' is a misspelling of the word 'sorry'. She likely wrote that last line by herself, but had the rest typed by someone else. An author as careful as she would never send a letter with such a horrific typo. This means her vision is compromised, she's not blind or squinting, her sight is blurry. She also threw up, so nausea and vomiting. An unusual case for an American or European, but your sources only take into account the native-born Europeans. Glaucoma is more prevalent among people of Asian descent, and she is young and in school, likely on scholarship. An unusual case, but not at all unlikely. Her family is probably poor, or in a situation where her glaucoma went unrecognized while she worked hard to study abroad. She came to Europe-probably England-to study, already wearing glasses and taking medicine to help her bad vision and vomiting. Maybe she pretends that she's of European and Asian descent, or that she's lived here all her life. Otherwise, the school and her doctor would definitely have required her to be tested for genetic disorders common in Asians, like glaucoma, and she would have been treated. Her family is likely too impoverished to pay for a genetic screening." Sherlock said as he whipped out his phone and started to type.

"Oh, God, Sherlock! We have to help her." John said and leaned for his mobile.

"John, don't worry, I've already taken care of it."


End file.
